Methodology of the surveys

Survey medium

HON's Surveys are conducted only via the Web. Participants respond to questionnaires posted at the HON Foundation Web site.

Type of sampling

HON's Surveys employ non-probabilistic sampling. We cannot ensure that the respondents are representative of the entire community of medical and health Web users. This type of Web sampling is entirely random. Participants are in their great majority regular Web users and are solicited in the following manner: Announcements and postings on Internet newgroups Announcements made to the mailing lists Links to the survey from medical and health-related Web sites (consult the list)

Period of validity of answers - Duration of the survey

HON has conducted surveys approximately every six months: the first in February-March 1997, then August-September 1997, May-June 1998, March-April 1999, October-November 1999, May-July 2000, February-March 2001, May-June 2002 and the last in winter 2004-2005. The questionnaire remains "live" on the Web for two or three months. Past this expiration date, the questionnaire is disactivated and answers are not taken into account.

Type of questionnaire

The questionnaire is designed for completion within ten minutes. Answers to a number of statements are requested from a multiple-choice list. The number of questions per survey has steadily grown, from 13 in the first survey (Feb/Mar 97) to 54 in the seventh (Winter 2005/2005). We invite you to inspect samples of the Oct/Nov 1999 and Winter 2004/2005 questionnaire. All surveys have maintained same questions so as to permit comparative analysis over time.